Representative Frank Small

Frank Small was a Republican Representative from Maryland who served one term in the United States Congress from 1953 to 1955. During this period, he contributed to the legislative process in the House of Representatives and participated in the democratic governance of the nation, representing the interests of his Maryland constituents at a time of significant political and social change in American history. His congressional service coincided with the early years of the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration, a period marked by Cold War tensions, the end of the Korean War, and the beginnings of the modern civil rights movement, providing the broader national context in which he carried out his duties as a member of Congress.

Frank Small’s tenure in Congress formed part of a wider landscape of public service by individuals of similar name active in various fields and countries during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Among these contemporaneous or near‑contemporaneous figures were several individuals named Frank Wall, whose careers, while distinct from Small’s, illustrate the diversity of professional and political life in this era. Frank Wall, a physician and herpetologist born in 1868, worked extensively in Sri Lanka and India and became known for his contributions to the study of reptiles in South Asia before his death in 1950. Another contemporary, Frank Wall, born in 1908, served as a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives and remained active in state politics in the United States until his death in 1998.

Other men named Frank Wall were active in public life in the British Commonwealth and Ireland. Frank Wall, an Australian politician born in 1879, held office in Australia and participated in that nation’s political affairs until his death in 1941. In Ireland, a politician named Frank Wall was active between 1981 and 1991, engaging in Irish political life during a period marked by constitutional debates and evolving party dynamics. Outside of electoral politics, a Frank Wall born in 1810 worked as an American steamboat engineer and contributed to the development and operation of steam-powered transportation in the nineteenth century, remaining active until his death in 1896. In the realm of sport, another Frank Wall gained recognition as an Irish hurler, participating in one of Ireland’s traditional Gaelic games, while Frank E. Wall became known in the United States as an accountant and sports executive, involved in the financial and administrative aspects of professional athletics.

Within this broader context of public and professional service by individuals sharing similar names, Frank Small’s role as a United States Representative from Maryland stands out as part of the mid‑twentieth‑century congressional record. His single term from 1953 to 1955 placed him at the intersection of national and local concerns, where he was responsible for articulating and advancing the priorities of his Maryland district in the federal legislature. Through his participation in debates, votes, and committee work typical of House members of the period, he contributed to the formulation of national policy during a formative era in modern American history.